By M.Christian
YNOT – It’s said a lot, maybe because it’s true: Just about anything, content-wise is possible in the world of adult entertainment.
No one knows this better than Jason “Loki” Smith, who was among the pioneers in a genre where artists’ imaginations impose the only limits: 3D erotic cartooning. Loki and his avatar sat down to talk with YNOT.com about the origins and history of 3D toons, his thoughts about the industry, new 3D toon affiliate program LokiCa$h, and where imagination may go from here.
YNOT.com: 3D Porn is unique, to say the least. What unusual hurdles have you faced with it and with your new affiliate program that promotes the niche, LokiCa$h?
Loki: For the longest time the word “hurdle” could have been both my business motto and my creed. I’d have to start back at the beginning to fully explain why I say this, but let me try to be brief.
Back in the late 1990s, when 3D toons were in their infancy, there were only about three of us making and moving content. The first hurdle we had was trying to convince programs that there was a market out there for the content. Next up, we had the “placement hurdle”: 3D toons were lumped into the same category as Anime, Hentai, Manga and hand-drawn porn, which made it hard to find 3D toon content on the old [thumbnail gallery posts], link lists and hubs. It took almost three years for me and a few others to convince site owners to create a standalone category for 3D toons.
When I started selling content on a [business-to-business] level in the mid 2000s, the biggest hurdle I had was the pricing. By this time, sponsors were able to pick up huge packages of “real people” content for next to nothing, and they were hard-pressed to spend $500 for 30 sets of 3D toons, let alone $1,000 or more for 30 minutes of video clips — and that was the cheapest rate at the time.
Then we come to the webmasters/affiliates hurdle. From what I’ve observed, most webmasters just don’t understand the niche, and so they assume it won’t make them money. They see “cartoons” and think “Do people really get off to this stuff?” But what they fail to see is, at least where 3D toons are concerned, it’s not always the porn aspect that brings in the surfers and customers.
3D toons are more often considered to be erotic art or fantasy art. While there are some people who do gravitate to 3D toon porn to fulfill a sexual fetish, from what I’ve seen over the past 15 years, most of the surfers tend to be videogame people and fantasy art or erotic art admirers. They come for the aspects 3D toons create that real porn just can’t match. They are also fellow artists, looking for inspiration or styles they can recreate themselves. Once webmasters grasp this concept, the marketability of the niche becomes clearer, and they see there is indeed good money to be made with the 3D toon niche.
My biggest hurdle came in 2004-2005, when I was dubbed “The Godfather of 3D Toon Porn” by AVN Online. I not only missed the boat on capitalizing on that moniker at the time, but months later I lost everything due to hosting issues. I thought I was with a reputable hosting company. They had a good reputation, and I paid for had multiple servers and backups. One day all the sites went down, leaving a bunch of webmasters, including me, in the lurch.
Fast forward to 2010: I was literally ready to retire — not financially mind you, but I was tired of the adult industry. What I had watched it become just made me sick. [Instead of leaving, though,] I teamed up with two coders and an idea man to rebuild and re-launch everything from the ground up. I wanted to prove the value of the tools and methods I’ve been screaming at others to use and prove that there is still plenty of money — more, actually — in the 3D toon market today.
What are the pros of creator-marketed content, and what is it like to give fans input on what artists create?
This has been one of my biggest selling points since the 1990s, and it has morphed into something a bit different and bigger today. Having my sites and affiliate program “100-percent Artist Owned and Operated” is a huge pro. For one thing, it tells the customers this is not some corporate cookie-cutter site. This is a personal site run by the artist. Think of it this way: My pay sites as a series of niche solo-girl sites where I am the solo girl.
Another pro is that since I make the content, I can use it in any way, shape or form I choose. I don’t have to worry about any third-party license agreements, and I can re-license it if I choose to. This also provides the freedom to make custom, co-branded or special content for webmasters or other programs.
A big plus: In the 15 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never lost a model or been told by her father, boyfriend, husband or ex to “remove her content or else.”
As for allowing the fans to drive the updates, that’s always been a win/win for me. I’ve always stressed to other 3D toon companies that if you’re going to get into this niche, it’s best to have your own in-house artists, because then you can tailor your site to exactly what your members want. If you offer a product to your customers and you allow them to drive the product, they will not leave.
I also strongly believe that having an artist-run program or site and allowing the members to truly direct the content gives them something they won’t find on tube sites, file-sharing sites or content boards. Put the customers in control, and they will and do spend their money.
The system does have its drawbacks, though. You get some pretty odd requests or requests you just can’t — or won’t — fill, but I’ve found that keeping an open line of communication with the customers makes a big difference.
You also let your fans watch and interact with you while you create. How does that affect the process?
This is actually a concept I’ve been kicking around in my head since 2005. Eventually it came down to one question: What kind of interaction would work best for this niche?
People always seem to want to know how artists do what we do. So with the launch of LokiCa$h, I decided to make one of the main focuses of the members areas an interactive learning experience. The sites all feature the same types of content as traditional pay sites — photo galleries, videos, etc. — but on top of that we also have “live render cams” that allow members to watch the creative process as it happens in our video chat room.
In the future Uncle Sickey and I plan to host live how-to sessions during which we’ll walk members through a particular aspect of the process, and then take questions. Each of those show nights will be archived and available for streaming for anyone who missed the show. We also plan to turn those lessons into downloadable DVDs to help artists who want to get into the 3D toons niche.
Last but not least, we have a “spotlight section” in the works where members will be able submit their own artwork. If they have enough work and it’s good enough, we may offer to create a site for the artist within the LokiCa$h program.
What future plans do you have for 3D Porn and LokiCa$h?
I have some pretty big plans for 2012 and onward, and I’m very excited about the new projects we have in the works. I plan to add at least another five niche sites to the program: gay, shemale, oral sex, interracial and a very special sports-themed site. I’m also looking at the possibility of creating a graphic-novel-style plug-in feed for other companies to use in their 3D Toon pay sites, but to be honest, that’s just in the concept stage right now. More info should be available in the late second quarter of 2012.
Our cartoon webmaster board will be getting a bit of an overhaul, and a marketing push will be starting mid first quarter. The goal is to get other sponsor programs involved, network cartoon artists with those programs and show webmasters the dos and don’ts of promoting cartoon sites in general. That project has taken a lot longer then I’d hoped, because it’s so hard to get companies to truly work together. But I really feel that once they open themselves up to my “pitch,” they will see more benefit in participating than in avoiding avoid it for fear of losing affiliates to another program.
I also want to bring more artists of traditional hand drawn cartoons, anime, hentai and 3D into the market and add new artists to the LokiCa$h program. You’d really be surprised just how many artists out there have no idea there is an adult industry they can market their content to. My personal goal for 2012 is to bring at least five new artists into the industry and get them networked with sponsors and content brokers.
All in all, I expect 2012 to be a year in which the 3D toon porn niche makes another big leap, gains more exposure and launches more sites and programs to make us all more money!
